Weir.

The Casual Connoisseur's Weir hat is due for release tomorrow- These have become a cult hit in the short time they have been in production and are due for 3 new colors this time round.
Named after the Scottish broadcaster/climber Tom Weir who wore a bobble hat and had a passion for climbing and the Scottish landscape.

The brand has been going on-wards and upwards with going into shirts and lightweight jackets ( The 'Beat a Storm' respectively) They have come back to the old season favorite with a new twist on the colour ways.

These are made with double acrylic which allows for more use with colour, The hats are designed to be able to stretch so they can fit heads of all shapes and sizes, They are also made in England which adds to more of the appeal for us.

Grab one while you can, These wont last long. From there website 

Casual Connoisseur Shirts

North west based clothing brand The Casual Connoisseur have released there line of premium shirts,As a forum poster on there website, I have managed to watch this brand grow from screen printed tees to the Wier hats & ther first foray into jackets, The beat a storm cagoule, They have gone from strength to strength and are heading in the right direction, The shirts are:.

  The Union Shirt - A workwear inspired Chambray shirt with loads of details - Ticket pockets and has a chinstrap collar detail.

The Seaton Shirt, a woven check shirt with a button down collar, Zippo pocket and contrasting button detailing.

The Dexy shirt - a purple gingham check design which features a small  and button down collar is more than a suitable hint towards mod and as the name of the shirt derives from.

Haigh Hall

Decided to go over to Haigh Hall on New Years Day ( Unlike most of Wigan, I had no hang over, Brought the new year in with a cup of tea)

Nice walk was had, Decent views of  my home town and also ran the legs off the dog, Quite like that moody looking up almost dark like shot of me.

In the Post - Casual Connoisseur Weir Hat 3

Over here on Redbricks we love what the Casual Connoisseur label produces, Having got a few off there tees and being a member over on there forum we often get an in site onto how the brand works and what is in the pipeline, After missing out on these great winter tifters the first time, I had to get one in what is my opinion the best out off the colours, They look mega.

Produced 150 of each colour, That means that there is only 50 off each - They have flown off the shelf, And they come with a limited edition card and the like which is the quirkiness which I love.

Also the fact that they are MADE IN ENGLAND is a massive selling point for me, There different and you will not see any around WN6 or at the Stadio d' JJB ( well I hope not.)

Casual connoisseur Weir Hat 2010

The Casual Connoisseur are releasing there popular "Weir Hat" in 3 different colours this year - Bound to be very warm during the long cold nights on the terraces.

Check out there site and affiliated blogs: www.casualco.com   and http://casualcoblog.blogspot.com

6876

Here are some sneak peak images taken from the Casual Co blog

All look intressting and I reckon if I have the cash I could be getting one of the shirts...Never actually owned anything from this brand as it has always been out of my reach, Not any-more!

Bit of coverage...

Thanks to the blokes over on Casual Connoisseur for a add on the links page, Much appreciated.

Over here on Redbricksandcoal we are big fans of Casualco.

Check out there site - casualco

Various reading...

I have recently started reading and taking not of a lot of other blogs - In paticular sport,Fashion and for some strange reason, American Culture - Since it has intrested me recently and also blogs a lot closer to home - Stockport to be exact.

A Continous Lean - A blog about all sorts,Fashion, Utensals and also furnature! - http://www.acontinuouslean.com/

One-Man-upmanship - A blog by a person who goes by the name of Chas Devlin on numorous boards, Very well written and explores Fashion,Football culture and also Film! - http://one-up-manship.blogspot.com/


Casualco - The fourm and website that I inhabite most of my free time on also has a blog! on there products,Film and all round football culture - http://casualcoblog.blogspot.com/

Joe Division - A personal and very close friend of mine also writes a blog about music and casual culture - Very well written blog - http://joe-division.blogspot.com/


Keep Blogging, Bloggers.

"Last thing purchased"

Casual Connoisseur members pin badge, Will look good on a light weight jacket or polo

Casual Connoisseur Interview

Thanks to the chaps over on Casual-Connoisseur for the interview, It's appreciated.

1. How did the idea come about for The Casual Connoisseur?

There's three of us involved now in the running of the business, though we use various companies to produce our product and often collaborate with other designers or companies to bring out a different range.
Well it was started as an idea muted a while ago. My brother and I have always been creative and have done a range of varying design work from websites, with people literally telling us we should 'put that on a t-shirt', it came from that, we feel there's is a market for what we do, we're not at all strictly aimed at the football casual style folk, whilst a selection of what we do caters for that and we are proud to do that, we have much wider appeal, people into music and movies are also into our brand. We are passionately into varying things, from art, film, music and style, can you be passionately into many things over different timescales? yes, casual connoisseurs.
As time has passed and the label has grown, we now feel there's a place for us to carry on with what we do and further our range, there's a market for us to offer decent, well crafted products at affordable prices. There's some great labels out there at the moment, making top quality stuff, we don't want to pretend to be like that, we are self sufficient and intend to offer a cool and quirky, and quality product we'd be happy to wear alongside those other expensive brands, we want to bridge that gap, with garments which don't cost hundreds of pounds to buy, but on the flip side are still very decent and people want to wear them and everything is always fairly limited and exclusive.

2. Where do you get your inspiration for your designs?

Allsorts of ideas and inspiration from the various cultures, we have a love of allsorts, from films and music, to art, the outdoors and real ale, general lifestyle kind of thing. Our aim is always where possible to be a bit quirky and different to the norm.
Some designs take months of planning and work, some happen overnight, sometimes those split second ideas turn out to be the best, whilst the one's you've really stressed over and are really proud of aren't half as well received as you thought, that's something every designer or label will tell you though.

3.How does the whole thing go from start to finish?

We brainstorm design ideas, many either get put in a queue to go into the design process or some we get started on right away. As mentioned certain designs are months in the making, taking a while to get completed from an idea through to a finished design on a tee, others can be thought of and designed and finished in a day or two it all depends on the ideas. We then either design them with the limitations/restrictions in place for the screenprinting process, or change our works to make them screenprint friendly - this can sometimes be a lengthy process depending on the actual design. We then have the tee sampled for approval or any relevant changes until we're happy then we go into screenprint process the timing can very depending on the volume and intricacy of the design.

With the other products we are doing, it's a case of tracking down someone who can do it, the Weir hats have been a great success for us, and we found the company who did that ourselves, without any prior knowledge of them, a bit of a gamble, but it paid off and they do/did a fantastic job.
We're currently getting other garments sampled and produced, but as I've said finding the right folk to do it has been the hardest part believe it or not, the funds are there, but sometimes the people are not, which is frustrating, very few people are willing to give you a foot up in this game, which we've learned. We could get things mass produced in Europe or South East Asia tomorrow but it's complicated and always a risk, plus we do intend to have everything produced at home where possible - and we're not just saying that to sound all trendy.

4. What do you look for when you design a tee?

Something different and imaginative each time, but we'll occasionally revisit and reproduce old stuff which always do well, certain designs outsell others totally, but sometimes the odd one or two which not everyone will 'get' are released and that's what we're about, it's expressing yourself on a blank canvas.
There's some very popular designs such as the Northern Music and Tinted Lens, and then there's one's the total opposite which appeal to a totally different crowd. Sometimes a real complex design will go over everyone's head but for a few hardy souls, yet sometimes the more generic/obvious designs will simply fly out.

5. I have noticed that you are planning on designing polo shirts, What factors have gone into this and what quality have you been looking for?

Yeah, we've been planning them for over two years, well we designed what we were after then and it's taken as long to find someone we're overly happy with or will do less than say 300 a colour and all that. We wanted something designed to our own specifications down to each detail as opposed to just picking something off the peg and customising it, anyone can do that so we didn't want to. We're wanting a good fit, good weight and quality akin to the big boys and the best polos out there.
There's no shame in admitting we are pretty much intending to base this on the classics such as Lacoste and Ralph, a simple two button placket polo with our own branding and quirk. We've been wearing stuff like I mentioned for years, they've never changed, simple and timeless style, it's a no brainer to take it from them.
We've tried several different people before we were happy with one, they're now into production, we've got to see more sampling with every detail and change taken into account then they'll be approved for full runs, intended to be out in time for summer if all goes well. We've learned unless you have a book of contacts you've got to search and search until you find the right people to work with and that is often the hardest part.

"Vintage American"

LL.Bean Smock, One of my favourite pieces of clobber thanks to Chas Devlin over on casual co for sorting this out a while ago.

A smart looking smock with two pockets and a "kangaroo pocket" in the middle nice and simple detailing, Sorry for the bad pictures taken from a phone.

Casual-Co

Casualco are tee-shirt designers from the north west of England, I will let what they say on there website do the talking.

"Who are we? A small team of three, Based in the North-West of
England.
With Regular collaborators and use professional expert companies to produce
our workings
our ethos is fairly simple,Our aim is to be quirky, Alternative, Individual
and original and full of passion!
our designs are based around "casual" and "popular culture" in general, We
are a self- sufficient brand which hopes to grow further as we develop new
ideas.
Our t-shirts are professionally screen printed, our accessory's are made by
professionals with many years experience.
We have big plans to progress into other items of clothing to. We are
always looking at new and original to develop ourselves as a brand. We are a
work in progress."

That its the nail on the head. From what I have seen there tee's are spot on quality wise and are very orginal.

I have got myself the "members only" tee which was produced for the members on the forum, When I got it it was very good quality and had some very good details and ofcourse the fit was great.

I plan on getting more of there tees over summer as I think they are great for the summer weather.

Check them out at : http://www.casualco.com/

here are some of there Designs, As I said very orginal.